ACCUMULATED AND ACCUMULABLE CULTURES - The Case of Public and Private Initiatives toward K-Pop1 - ecipe

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ACCUMULATED AND
ACCUMULABLE CULTURES
The Case of Public and Private Initiatives toward K-Pop1

Jimmyn Parc
Seoul National University and Sciences Po Paris
jimmynparc@gmail.com

Hwy-Chang Moon
Seoul School of Integrated Sciences and Technologies and
Seoul National University
cmoon.snu@gmail.com

Abstract
When it comes to the promotion of culture, many tend to highlight the vital role of public
initiatives. his idea is based on the common perception that culture is part of the nation-
state. his belief also stems from the confusion between two types of culture. To address such
misperceptions, this paper emphasizes a distinction between accumulated and accumulable
cultures: he former is associated with the nation-state and local conditions. Given that it
has formed over a long period of time with the accumulation of related cultural practices, the
need to protect it is strong. On the other hand, accumulable culture is less associated with
the nation-state and is more universalistic. As it has only formed relatively recently, it can be
further improved and enhanced. Alongside this, it should be well understood that accumulated
culture was also once accumulable and has survived over time. Furthermore, this paper argues
that in order to promote accumulable culture, private initiatives would have a more signiicant
impact than public eforts. For example, the role of the Korean government has usually been
credited by several media outlets and scholars in explaining the emergence of K-pop; however, a
rigorous analysis of K-pop clearly demonstrates that private initiatives have actually been more
efective in promoting K-pop internationally. his perspective intends to provide important
implications for policy makers to formulate more efective policies that would help promote
their national culture as a source of soft power.

Keywords
accumulated culture; accumulable culture; cultural policy; public initiatives; private initiatives;
K-pop; Hallyu

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About the Authors
Jimmyn Parc, Ph.D. is Visiting Lecturer at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po),
France and a Research Associate at the EU Centre, Graduate School of International Studies,
Seoul National University in Korea. He is also a Research Associate of the European Centre
for International Political Economy (ECIPE ), Brussels, Belgium. He has published numerous
academic articles and conducted a number of research projects related to the competitiveness
of organizations, industries, and countries. For his main topic of research on the cultural and
creative services industries, Dr. Parc uses historical and comparative approaches to understand
international business strategies. In particular, he has a special interest in the ilm and music
industries as they face a changing business environment and new challenges from digitization.

Hwy-Chang Moon, Ph.D. is Chair Professor at Seoul Business School, Seoul School of Integrated
Sciences and Technologies and Professor Emeritus in the Graduate School of International
Studies at Seoul National University, where he served as the Dean. He has delivered special
lectures at various institutions, including Helsinki School of Economics, Keio University, and
Stanford University. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Business
and Economy, and has published numerous articles and books on topics covering International
Business Strategy, Cross-Cultural Management, Foreign Direct Investment, and Economic
Development in East Asia with a focus on Korea. He has served as consultant for several
multinational companies, international organizations, and governments.

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When Korean pop music, or K-pop, irst emerged in the mid-1990s, many believed
that it was a fad and that it would not be sustainable. Several media outlets in
South Korea (hereafter Korea) have expressed similar opinions. For example, the
Korean journalist Kwaak Je-yup disparaged K-pop—calling it, “disposable fast
music.” However, after two decades, its popularity has only grown further, with
its inluence extending from East Asia to Europe, the Americas, and even Africa.
Despite this global success, there has been a signiicant level of misunderstanding,
prejudice, and even backlash toward K-pop (Ainslie, Lipura, and Lim; Choe and
Russel; Lhatoo; Lindvall; Solery; Wang). One prominent criticism is the belief that
the Korean government has actively supported K-pop and the exportation of its
products to other countries, although Amy Wang states that this assertion is not
based on any concrete evidence.

   Relecting such negative perceptions, the French journalist Claire Solery has
employed militant words such as “soldier,” “arms,” “conquer,” and “border” to
describe K-pop’s expansion around the world. Her view gives the impression that,
through their international activities, K-pop groups seek to promote the brand
of Korea and support the Korean government, and vice versa. She further raises
an issue about the cultural appropriation of K-pop by highlighting the fact that
there is signiicant input from a number of international talents—such as Swedish
songwriters, and American and Japanese choreographers—to produce K-pop. Her
conclusion, then, is that K-pop simply collects all of these elements and repackages
them together as brand of Korea. In other words, she closely associates culture
with the nation-state.

    In order to dispel this view, some examples from French cultural history that
 parallel the expansion of K-pop may be worth considering. It is well known that
 France often glamorizes its cultural expansion under the broad umbrella of mission
 civilisatrice or “civilizing mission,” while diminishing similar behavior by other
 cultures, notably from America, as a form of “cultural invasion.” Yet from the view
 of those who are neither French nor American, both are identical in their desire to
“expand” cultural power. Echoing this prevailing attitude toward cultural expansion,
 Solery’s eforts to cast a negative view of K-pop may come as no surprise. However,
 the problem with this view is that it is based on misconceptions and prejudice,
 and it is often easily accepted without any rational consideration. In fact, history
 shows a great number of interesting examples that call on us to rethink the linkages
 between culture and the nation-state.

   One of the most prominent cultural symbols of France is the Louvre Museum,
which has collected cultural and historic relics from around the world. Interestingly,
the majority of them are not originally French, although they are presented as
part of the French national culture. In this museum, the most popular attraction

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is Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. his world-renowned painting was originally
acquired by King Francis I during da Vinci’s stay in France. It is important to note
that, while da Vinci was commissioned by the French king, there has been no
evidence that da Vinci moved to France in order to promote Italy or its “brand.”
Alternatively, as the victor of wars against several Italian city-states, Francis I had no
reason to admire the “culture” of those who had surrendered to him. Rather, what
he took interest in was the Renaissance style that was prevalent in the Italian region
at that time, with little linkage to the nation-state. In fact, the term “Renaissance”
only began to appear in the nineteenth century to label a speciic period that
epitomizes a distinctive spirit and style (Johnson). his example highlights the idea
that, during this period, “culture” and the nation-state were not considered to be
associated with one another—a view that is very diferent from the one today.

    Some may argue that the case of da Vinci is not a suitable example since Italy
 was not a uniied country at that time; it instead consisted of many city-states and
 principalities, thus exhibiting a weaker sense of national identity. Given this, the
 case of the famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh may provide a more convincing
 case. In 1886, he came to Paris, which at that time was the art capital of the world.
At this time, the Netherlands had already experienced several major conlicts with
 other European powers and thus the sense of national identity among the Dutch
 was well established. However, Van Gogh did not seek to promote the Netherlands
 in France. his is evident in the series of letters that he exchanged with his brother
heo and other acquaintances. Although he mentions “Dutch,” “Netherlands,” and
“Holland” approximately 195 times (Van Gogh), there is little indication that the
 artist was interested in promoting the Netherlands or his nationality.

   he same principle applies to other artists. Consider the examples of Pablo
Picasso’s and Salvador Dalí’s stay in Paris, the Beatles’ visit to the United States,
John Lennon’s residence in New York, and K-pop groups’ tours of the United
States. None of these artists were associated with promoting their nationality or
their nation-state. Rather, their global fame and popularity stemmed mostly from
audiences’ appreciation of their work; thus, these artists looked to expand their
sphere of activity abroad by moving to the international cultural centers of their
time. It is especially worthy of notice that these artists gained their popularity
without public support from their homelands and that their countries had not been
promoting these artists in their early years. Instead, the government preferred to
use well-established artists in order to promote the national brand and exploit their
works to show of the superiority of their country.

   Given this reality, why do critics insist upon associating culture with national
identity? Because such a view persists, many believe that the public sector, which
includes the government, should promote culture while overlooking the eforts

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of the private sector. his raises the question: Which initiatives promote culture
more efectively—public or private initiatives? A meaningful efort to address this
question would now require the examination of pop culture, which has recently
gained more attention.

    his paper is organized in the following way: the irst section examines the
existing literature that supports either public or private initiatives. he second
section analyzes the association between culture and the nation-state based on the
literature review. he third section proposes a new concept of culture and explores
the efectiveness of both public and private initiatives for supporting these two
types of culture. he fourth section focuses on pop culture by using the case of
K-pop in order to extract policy implications that would help promote pop culture
in other countries. he ifth section deals with a discussion that relects upon the
main points of the analysis. Lastly, the concluding section summarizes the main
implications to be drawn from this study.

CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW : PUBLIC INITIATIVES VS . PRIVATE INITIAVIES

Broadly speaking, the deinition or distinction of culture is too indeterminate and
diicult to pin down. hroughout a number of his works, Michel Foucault has often
focused on the needs and importance of government policies regarding culture
(“Technologies of the Self ”; “Governmentality”). In assessing his work, Timothy
Mitchell and Paul Rabinow argue that Foucault’s concept is more associated with
the social environment in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries where culture
was shared within enclosed spaces—a region or a nation-state—with an array of
institutions, such as corporations, state agencies, and markets (Barnett 389). In
addition, David Scott evaluates Foucault’s concept as one that involves the shaping
of the general conditions within the daily lives of people; this approach is closely
related to the conventional notion of culture. On the other hand, Clive Barnett
argues that Foucault’s model is not suited toward understanding “ongoing” culture
that is mediated electronically, such as radio and television, and culture that has
less territorial restraints. In other words, Barnett hints at a need to distinguish the
diferent kinds of culture that have evolved with technological advancement.

   Jon Hawkes follows the conventional concept of culture. He argues that it is
derived from society’s values that are the basis upon which all else is built. Values
and the ways they are expressed are society’s culture. As cultural vitality is essential
toward establishing a healthy and sustainable society, in this view, public planning
and culture are very much intertwined; thus, Hawkes acknowledges the need for
public initiatives to form culture. Similarly, John Holden highlights the importance

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of government intervention—including initiatives to assess, develop, and further
enrich culture and its value upon which an improved quality of life can lourish.
While it is rather limited for public initiatives to be extended to the conventional
type of culture because it has already been well established.

   McGuigan classiies cultures into two general ields: irst, the arts and higher
learning; and second, ways of life (5). he irst is relatively close to the concept
mentioned by Barnett in terms of the formation period. he second is the
traditional object of anthropology and is too broad of a notion to deal with in the
scope of social science; it is also closer to Foucault’s approach. Raymond Williams
further delimits the concept of culture as a realized signifying system which refers
to practices and institutions (“Culture” 207). Since the practices and institutions
place emphasis on the means of production, dissemination, consumption, and
other functions, it is believed that culture and its industry should be regulated
and controlled by the public sector (McGuigan 6-7). However, these functions are
more visible in ongoing culture rather than the conventional type of culture.

   Nicholas Garnham suggests two deinitions for culture: one is a site of individual
excellence (and/or art) and the other is focused on popular culture and media
(23); both are treated as subordinate to ongoing culture. He emphasizes that, for
individual artists, if their works do not create an audience, “the market is blamed
and the gap is illed by subsidy [from the public sector such as government]” (4).
He also argues that popular culture and media need intervention from the public
sector due to their growing economic importance and their having functions such
as production, distribution, consumption, and other commercial forces (35). his
provides a good explanation for why a number of governments have intervened in
culture and cultural industries through various measures.

   While the aforementioned literature deals solely with culture and advocates the
needs for public initiatives conceptually, there exists other literature that focuses
on culture and cultural industries—as explained in Barnett’s ideas on culture—
with concrete evidence to emphasize the importance of private initiatives. homas
Guback, for instance, explains how public initiatives have distorted the European
ilm industry. He delineates the ways that various protectionist measures, such as
quotas and subsidies, were misused and became inefective in strengthening this
cultural sector. Contrary to its original aim, most European ilm subsidies have in
fact helped Hollywood studios maintain their strong hold on the European markets.
Sean Pager echoes Guback, by showing examples from the ilm industries of Hong
Kong, India, Korea, and Nigeria; he provides a contrast between the negative
aspects of public initiatives and the positive aspects of private initiatives.

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   Susan Hayward refers to the history of the French ilm industry and points
out the detrimental impact of public initiatives. Patrick Messerlin and Isabelle
Vanderschelden further highlight the inefectiveness of these public initiatives in
the French ilm industry. he French government has established a large amount
of subsidies in order to foster a strong national ilm industry; however, these eforts
were not properly oriented and were eventually manipulated by vested interests
among the industrial participants. Patrick Messerlin and Jimmyn Parc compare
the French and Korean ilm industries in order to emphasize the roles that private
initiatives play in fostering a healthy business environment versus that of public
initiatives alone (“he Efect of Screen Quotas;” “he Real Impact of Subsidies”).

   Jimmyn Parc demonstrates how the public and private initiatives have changed
the Korean ilm industry (“Evaluating the Efects of Protectionism”; “he Efects
of Protection”). In particular, there are two contrasting periods: one where public
initiatives played a stronger role and the other where private initiatives featured
more prominently. By contrasting these two periods, his works show which
initiative has been more efective. Whenever the Korean government implemented
protectionist measures, the private sector sought out loopholes in order to increase
their proits in an environment not conducive to business, which resulted in
unexpected detrimental efects. On the other hand, when the government removed
regulations and left the ilm industry to the hand of the market function, private
initiatives tended to enhance the competitiveness of the Korean ilm industry.

   Jimmyn Parc, Patrick Messerlin, and Hwy-Chang Moon focus on the impact of
copyrights on the Korean music industry. Although the government has tried to
foster a healthy and sound music industry, at least from the view of policy makers
and government oicers, these public initiatives inadvertently led to more piracy.
In contrast, when government intervention was limited, the industry began to
blossom and even gained international popularity, which helped companies to
overcome the piracy issue. In particular, Jimmyn Parc and Nobuko Kawashima
compare the Japanese and Korean music industries—speciically those that
produce J-pop and K-pop. heir work demonstrates how each music industry has
responded to digitization. he Korean private sector has embraced digitization
more actively and has developed various strategies by adapting to changes in the
industry. he opposite has happened in Japan where the private sector resisted the
changes caused by digitization and continued as it did before despite the provision
of government support. hese studies thus highlight the importance of the private
sector in promoting culture.

   While examining and contrasting literature that either advocates public or private
initiatives, two diferent types of culture can be alluded to, traditional culture or
cultural heritage as described by Foucault, and culture tied to industries like ilm

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and music as indicated by Barnett. For either the Foucault-type or Barnett-type
of culture, the attributes and diferences have not yet been clearly distinguished,
but are rather commingled and confusing. In order to ind good answers to the
two questions raised before—irst, the association between culture and the nation-
state and second, the efective promotion of culture—it is necessary to analyze the
diferences between these two types of culture. In establishing clearer distinctions,
more accurate and persuasive answers can be presented.

CULTURE , THE NATION -STATE , AND EFFECTIVE PROMOTION

he Foucault-type culture describes one that is shared within an enclosed space,
and it shapes the general conditions of the population’s daily lives. his concept is
therefore much closer to the conventional concept of culture and is derived from
society’s values, as Hawkes argues. It is also more in line with the second deinition
of culture classiied by McGuigan—culture as a way of life. Since this Foucault-type
of culture is already well established in society, it should be carefully preserved
for the identity of the nation-state. In this regard, Hawkes and Holden insist on
the need for public initiatives to design plans for culture in order to maintain a
healthy and sustainable society. However, it can be a rather controversial idea that
public initiatives should be involved in planning—that is, assessing, developing,
and enriching—well-established cultures that have survived throughout history.
In addition, the feasibility and efectiveness of managing such an endeavor are
questionable.

    By contrast, the Barnett-type culture evolves with technological advancement,
such as radio and television, and it has fewer territorial restraints. Furthermore,
unlike the Foucault-type culture, this one can be easily assessed, developed, and
enriched because it is constantly progressing toward a more concrete form, or it can
undergo evolution that would allow this type of culture to be further disseminated
and consumed. In particular, the processes of production, dissemination, and
consumption, indicated in the signifying system that Williams raised, are more
visible in the Barnett-type of culture. Knowing that the Foucault-type culture
is linked with society and the nation-state, it is often removed from the idea of
individual excellence as suggested by Garnham. Hence, Garnham’s deinition of
culture should be classiied under the Barnett-type, although the issue of consumers
and/or consumption that Garnham raised should be understood as a matter of
supply-and-demand mismatch. It is noteworthy to mention that the Barnett-type
culture and its practice can be widely accepted and prevalent regardless of its origin.
However, this type of culture comes to be tightly associated with the nation-state

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as time goes by. In other words, when the Barnett-type culture survives, it becomes
integrated in the Foucault-type of culture.

    he issue of technological advancement should be understood carefully.
hroughout history, culture has always embraced new technologies; among
 these include perspectives and industrial paints for paintings, various musical
 instruments and the development of scores in music, metal printing blocks in
 publishing, and fermented and canned food in cuisine. What was once seen as
“new” technology is now considered as everyday items. Furthermore, the signifying
 system and its functions, such as production, dissemination, and consumption,
 trace the same route. For instance, it is widely known that Louis XIV was directly
 involved in the creation of various codiied techniques and systemized ballet
 through the Académie Royale de Danse in France (Christout).2 During and after
 the Renaissance period, patronage was commonplace, and thus becomes part
 of a system of production and consumption (Kempers and Jackson). Compared
 to today, the system and functions also existed in the “old” culture and cultural
 practice, although there is a diference in sophistication. he system and functions
 disappear or slow down signiicantly as these cultures and cultural practices settle
 down into a well-systematized form.

   In other words, much of the existing literature focuses too much on what we
experience today but overlooks the history of progress in establishing culture
and cultural practices. In addition, a great number of cultural elements are not
from local sources but elsewhere, yet as they become prevalent and remain in a
speciically enclosed location, they soon become associated with the nation-state.
To name some examples, wine originated from the Near East, but in present time,
France and Italy are more closely associated with the image of wine producers.
Halloween today is automatically linked with North American countries such as
Canada and the United States, but it is believed to have originally come from Celtic,
Gaelic, and Welsh cultures (Santino). he origins of certain cultural practices are
overlooked over time as a certain country takes over the associated image of a
culture or cultural practice. hus, it becomes relatively diicult to plan and manage
these types of cultural practices in our time, but they can easily and often be
exploited to highlight history, pride, or even the superiority of a nation-state.

   As a result, the Foucault- and Barnett-types of culture can clearly be distinguished
by temporal diference through the accumulation of many cultural practices. Often
the values of the past emerge in the presence of older culture and cultural practices.
Few people considered Vincent van Gogh as a great artist while he was alive; the
works of Pablo Picasso were not considered as art, and neither was he considered
as an artist during his early days. Andy Warhol and other pop artists experienced
a similar situation, and today we consider them all to be great. In light of this,

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temporal accumulation plays a critical factor in distinguishing between the two
types of culture. he distinction is worth making, since the connotation of the
Foucault-type culture has been so strong, and the association between culture and
nation-states appears as natural in our lives.

   In this paper, the Foucault-type culture is renamed as “accumulated” culture
whereas the Barnett-type culture is termed as “accumulable” culture.3 his
new typology of culture becomes useful in answering the second question:
Which initiatives promote culture more efectively, public or private initiatives?
Accumulated culture takes a relatively long time to be developed, which is why it
exists as a well-established form in our time. By contrast, accumulable culture is
relatively new and recent. It is not as well-established from a historical perspective,
although it appears well formed in our time. When these two kinds of cultures are
compared, accumulated culture covers only a limited market (or territory), either
substantially or conceptually. By contrast, accumulable culture is often broader in
terms of consumption because it is disseminated to various territories, and it is
more universalistic. In order to promote accumulated culture, it should be well
preserved to maintain its originality; whereas accumulable culture should be
further enhanced or improved in order to be better disseminated and have a wider
appeal. his distinction is presented in Table 1:

Table 1. A new typology of culture

                               Accumulated culture            Accumulable culture
Formation period               relatively older and longer    relatively newer and shorter
Consumption territoriality     limited and local              broader and universalistic
Action to promote              to preserve                    to enhance (or improve)
Association with               strong                         less strong (or weak)
the nation-state
                                                              contemporary performance
                               traditional performance        (ilms, musicals, dramas,
                               (operas, ballets, etc.),       etc.), pop music, fusion food,
Examples                       classical (or traditional)     contemporary fashion, as
                               music, traditional food,       well as a number of non-
                               traditional fashion            cultural activities

   When arguing in favor of government support for culture, proponents will often
highlight the soft power concept proposed by Joseph Nye. his approach toward
culture is, in fact, closer to the notion of accumulable culture. Nye describes
the characteristics of culture as universalistic, instead of unique and localized.

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Furthermore, culture encounters less resistance and enjoys a close following if
it is attractive. It also possesses widespread appeal, being embodied in products
and communications (164-169). For example, he mentions American-style fashion,
TV programs, music, and ilms that have been widely accepted around the world.
More interestingly, he points out the openness of [American] culture to diferent
ethnicities (170). his fact signiies that a culture could be more open to adopt
other inluences in order to form a more advanced one that can be more widely
disseminated and consumed. his kind of culture is diferentiated from accumulated
culture that seems currently unique and localized without much foreign input and
exists as a relatively more concretized form.

    In particular, Nye argues that “power means an ability to do things and control
others” (154); this concept is in fact closely related to maintaining a leading position
in the world (Li; Nye). With accumulated culture that has a strong linkage with the
nation-state, controlling others and having a strong position means the nation-state
will have to confront opposition from others. Furthermore, given that the history
of the United States is relatively shorter than many Asian and European countries,
it cannot be expected to maintain leadership in accumulated culture. hus, the
power and ability that Nye refers to is more closely related to accumulable culture
such as popular culture (169).

     It should be underscored that accumulated culture was once accumulable, and
 it has survived over time. In other words, accumulable culture is a forerunner of
 accumulated culture; hence, much efort should be given to enhance and develop
 accumulable culture in order for it to prosper. Additionally, accumulated culture—
 regardless of nativeness or foreignness—can be a good source of inspiration and
 reference to foster an accumulable one. For example, works from the Renaissance
 period were inspired by the accumulated culture of Greece and have existed as
 an accumulable culture in a transitional form in Italy. he temporal accumulation
 transformed this accumulable culture to an accumulated one. Sometimes, the same
 cultural practice can be understood diferently across contrasting geographical
 locations. For example, making and drinking wine can be considered as accumulated
 culture in France; its well-known wineries maintain their traditional methods.
 However, the same practice can be seen as accumulable culture in California, with
 the introduction of American practices to oenology. Interestingly, this cultural
“appropriation” happens not only between accumulated and accumulable culture,
 but also between accumulable cultures as illustrated by the case of K-pop.

   In contrast to the Foucault- and Barnett-types of culture, these accumulated
and accumulable cultures have a much broader but clearer sense in terms of their
deinitions by highlighting temporal accumulation, which transforms a non-
cultural object into a cultural one. A good example is the Great Wall of China.

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he construction of this wall was initially for defensive purposes, therefore it was
not considered as a site of cultural heritage at the time. However, as this wall has
survived and the value of the past has been accumulated, the Great Wall now holds
cultural value. Furthermore, its symbolic connotation has changed from invasion
and adversity caused by enemies to a symbol of China’s history and pride.

   As shown in the examples above, there is a constantly changing dynamics between
accumulated and accumulable cultures. However, not all accumulable cultures
can be transformed into accumulated ones. One of the prerequisite conditions for
accumulable culture to survive is that it should be competitive, widely accepted,
and open to technological advancements; in this regard, today’s information,
communication, and technology (ICT ) should be seen as a potential catalyst, not
a threat. herefore, accumulable culture should not be protected and preserved,
but rather be open to improvement and enhancement. By understanding these
diferences and distinctions clearly, better policies to promote both accumulated
and accumulable cultures can be formed.

EFFECTIVE PROMOTION : THE CASE OF K-POP

Ideally, it would be more beneicial to examine the efectiveness of the public
and private initiatives for both accumulated and accumulable cultures. However,
this paper chooses to focus solely on accumulable culture because of its status
as culture as something constantly evolving, and because of the many examples
that can be easily found. K-pop is a particularly good case study since it has two
distinctive periods: before and after the mid-1990s. Before the mid-1990s, K-pop
and the Korean music industry were not well developed; it was only after this period
that they began to emerge more successfully to the extent that they now enjoy
international popularity. In this case, how have the public and private initiatives
afected the emergence of K-pop? Which one has had a more positive impact on
the promotion of K-pop? his section examines comprehensively the efectiveness
of the public and private initiatives in promoting K-pop by focusing on production,
consumption, and related sectors, as well as the business context. he study adopts
Michael Porter’s diamond model and its extension, namely the generalized double
diamond model, to provide a more comprehensive perspective (For further details,
see Porter; Moon, Rugman, and Verbeke).

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   . Production

   As mentioned before, accumulable culture can also be further developed by
incorporating inluences from overseas. Currently, K-pop is considered as a unique
genre due to its strong association with Korea, but it actually absorbs and blends
the styles of American hip-hop, J-pop, Euro techno, African dance music, and even
Korean traditional music. In the past, government initiatives sought to prohibit the
import of foreign music in order to protect the local music industry. his naturally
hindered mutual cultural exchange with other countries. Many imported albums,
with new genres and diferent styles, could not be released in their original format
because songs were often censored and removed from an album (B. Kim). From
the consumer’s perspective, the only way to listen to the original album without
censorship was through pirated albums, which increased the demand for them.
As the piracy market grew, the recording labels began to produce pirated albums
in order to overcome their inancial diiculties in the underdeveloped Korean
music market of the 1960s-1980s (B. Kim). his is why the Korean market sufered
severely from piracy which had an impact on its music sales. Luckily, with the
emergence of digitization, Korean entertainment companies were able to ind a
way to overcome this piracy problem by adopting a new business model. (Refer to
Parc and Kawashima for details).

   Due to a series of diplomatic conlicts, the Korean government also prohibited
the import of Japanese cultural products. Under these conditions, copying popular
Japanese content was the easiest way to produce “quality” products for Korean
companies. herefore, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, disputes over plagiarism in
relation to copying J-pop continued in Korea, and hampered the ability of Korean
producers to make creative quality content. Eventually, the Korean government
opened up its market to Japanese culture in the late 1990s (Pager). his evolution
was painful for the domestic music industry due to severe competition caused by
the inlux of foreign cultural products and companies over a short period; however,
it was beneicial for the further development of creativity and diversity for K-pop
by creating the need to diferentiate them from their international counterparts in
the long-term (Parc, Messerlin, and Moon).

   . Consumption

    Following the 1997 inancial crisis, the Korean government focused on upgrading
its internet infrastructure in order for the country to enjoy greater competitiveness
in the new era of ICT . hanks to this policy, many industries were able to easily
adopt digitization and strengthen their position. he music industry was no

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exception. By embracing digitization, the Korean music industry found a more
efective way to overcome its severe piracy problem (Parc, Messerlin, and Moon).
As a result, these music companies signiicantly changed the process for producing
and consuming music: from analog to digital, albums to songs, possessing to
accessing, audio to visual, and end products to promotional products (for further
details refer to Parc and Kawashima). his shows that these indirect initiatives by
the government helped these Korean companies to embrace digitization, which
led them to improve and enhance K-pop’s attractiveness and its global popularity.

   As Korea’s cultural contents have gained their international popularity, the
government has taken advantage of this development to promote the Korean
brand. In this respect, the government set up strategic plans and used the success
of Hallyu or the Korean Wave as the focus for its publicity campaigns (MCST ). A
narrative has evolved from this efort that considers the Korean government to be
the key factor that helped K-pop’s success. International media outlets and many
scholars have quoted it almost verbatim without much criticism (M. Kim; Walsh),
and the association of K-pop with the national identity of Korea became too strong.
Consequently, Korean cultural goods became easy targets for boycotts during
international political disputes.

    When Korea and Japan clashed over several sensitive diplomatic matters such as
territorial disputes and the issue of wartime sexual slavery in 2012, the popularity
of K-pop in Japan decreased signiicantly. Almost immediately, K-pop band groups
disappeared from Japanese television screens (Park). Such a backlash meant that
it took several years for K-pop to regain its popularity in Japan. A similar situation
happened in China. When the Korean government made the decision to allow
the deployment of a US anti-ballistic missile defense system, known as Terminal
High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD ) to defend the country from the threat
posed by North Korea, the Chinese government unoicially “boycotted” Korean
cultural contents in 2016. A great number of planned TV dramas and concerts
were canceled and K-pop’s popularity decreased signiicantly (Park). If K-pop did
not have a strong image associated with the government, it would have been less of
a target for these campaigns.

   . Related Sectors

   When emphasizing the role of the government in the success of Hallyu, a number
of academics and media outlets usually point out as evidence the government’s
support for concerts, music festivals, and Korean Wave conventions such as
KCON (Kwon and Kim; Wang). his may appear to be a compelling case; however,

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it is important to note that when the Korean government began to support these
aforementioned events, K-pop had already gained a signiicant level of international
popularity. hus, it would be more accurate to say that the Korean government
has been taking advantage of K-pop in order to promote the “national brand” of
Korea (Cho and Kim; Oh and Lee; Parc, “he Efects of Protection”). Recently, the
Korean government has even established a department dedicated solely to K-pop
and the oicial position on its role is very telling. A government oicial in the
department stated that the “Korean Wave, including K-pop, has been gaining a lot
of international attention, and it is culturally beneicial to the national interests,
so the state provides full support” (Kelly). his clearly demonstrates that public
support is not seeking to promote K-pop, but rather the international popularity of
K-pop is being utilized to boost the brand of Korea.

   K-pop’s success has also attracted the international private sector, but not
because of the government’s support. A key example is L Capital, the private equity
arm of the French luxury goods giant LVMH , who invested approximately US $ 80
million into one of the leading K-pop companies YG Entertainment, Inc. (Lee;
Parc, Messerlin, and Moon). his company manages a stable of top performers,
including BigBang and Psy. Although Korea has actively tried to attract foreign
direct investment for various sectors since the 1980s, it was only after K-pop’s
international success that LVMH and several Chinese companies decided to invest
in the Korean music industry.

  . Business Context

    From the 1960s to the 1980s, the Korean government tightly controlled public
opinion and the media. As such, the authorities restricted songs that contained
any decadent lyrics and/or critical words about society and the government. Along
with this, its censorship distorted the business environment of the Korean music
industry. Until the late 1980s, the government banned around 1,700 K-pop songs
for various reasons: they mimicked Japanese style, or were deemed vulgar, graceless,
decadent, and too grieved (National Archives of Korea). Some rock songs were
banned due to their “untrained” vocal style—based on the listening tastes of people
in the public sector when they compared with the vocal style of existing songs. Songs
such as “Lie” were prohibited because the government believed that it promoted
distrust in Korean society. hese public initiatives with “good” intentions were not
very helpful for the development of K-pop.

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   As K-pop has emerged internationally in the early 2000s, a great number of
individual aspirants from other parts of the world came to Korea looking to use
their talent to become members of K-pop band groups and/or to become part of
the Korean Wave. Talents have come from Canada (Henry in Super Junior-M),
China (Fei and Jia in Miss A, Victoria in f(x), and Zhou Mi in Super Junior-M),
Chinese Taipei (Kuan-lin Lai in Wanna one and Tzuyu in Twice), Japan (Sana,
Mina, and Momo of Twice), hailand (Lisa in Black Pink), and the United States
(EXP as a group). It is hard to argue that these individuals came to Korea solely
for the purpose of promoting their nation-state or that the Korean government’s
initiatives attracted them to Korea. Despite international political disputes in the
region, they came because the Korean entertainment companies would help them
develop their talent and gain international popularity. Indeed, many of them have
become successful thanks to the training programs ofered by these entertainment
companies. Furthermore, their presence in the Korean music industry makes
K-pop more diverse and dynamic.

DISCUSSION

Facing the strong dominance of American pop culture, a number of countries
have begun to protect their cultural industries. For example, import quotas, screen
quotas, subsidies for ilm industries, and broadcasting quotas for radio have been
introduced. Notably, with the increasing popularity for on-demand audiovisual
media services, such as Netlix and Amazon Prime, the European Union now
requires that these streaming service providers reserve at least 30 percent share for
European works in their contents (Stolton). Many of these protectionist measures
are pursued under the name of “diversity of cultural expressions.” At irst, they
seem to be efective in order to protect cultural industries. However, these public
initiatives do not distinguish between accumulated and accumulable culture. hey
may also bring about other unexpected side efects, which are ultimately unhelpful
to cultural industries—notably accumulable culture.

   he European ilm industry has already experienced these negative side efects.
For example, after World War II , many European countries introduced regulations,
such as Eady Levy in the United Kingdom, which made it diicult for American ilm
production in Europe to take back proits to the United States. hese regulations
pushed American production companies to transform their subsidiaries into
European companies in order to maximize the utilization of frozen funds caused
by these regulations. Later, when Europe introduced subsidies for ilm production
and international co-production, it was these American subsidiaries that beneited
the most in Europe. hus, these protectionist measures did not help promote

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the European ilm industry, but instead supported the internationalization of the
Hollywood ilm industry. In contrast, efective trade policies can be of help by
lowering regulatory barriers and setting a proper level of tax relief and subsidies
(Parc and Messerlin). Unfortunately, the private sector became complacent, and
vested interests emerged in the competition for various public subsidies. As a result,
the European private sector has been losing its international competitiveness when
compared with other countries.

   With regard to the issue of cultural appropriation in K-pop, it is argued that
K-pop has often used talents from America, Japan, and Sweden, but has packaged
them as Korean products. Such criticism is derived from ignorance about the
dynamics of culture mentioned earlier in this text. he Korean music industry
should instead be seen as a small museum akin to the Louvre that collects competent
talents from all over the world and synergistically puts them on display. Seen from
this perspective, it would imply that if K-pop groups do not choose to use French
talent, it may well be because France does not possess the kind of internationally
attractive and competitive talent that K-pop would be interested in. One should
not forget that there have been many international talents who achieved success
in France: Jacques Brel from Belgium and Céline Dion and Pierre Garand known
as Garou from Canada. Instead of criticizing K-pop, it would be more beneicial to
learn more from its strategy. he core message of K-pop’s success is “if Korea can
do it, so can everyone else.”

CONCLUSION

Culture is often thought to be something that should be protected from others and
carefully preserved as part of the country’s national identity. his view may appear
to make sense considering that culture has formed over the course of a long history
and therefore becomes associated with the national image. his accumulated
culture naturally calls for it to be protected and preserved. However, a diferent type
of culture—accumulable culture—has begun to appear more recently; sometimes
it is not even considered as part of culture. Accumulable culture is less associated
with the nation-state, but a few countries have been competitive enough to take
the lead in several speciic aspects of accumulable culture. If an accumulable
culture and its practices have been accumulated over a signiicant amount of time
in a geographical area or collective group, it will transform into an accumulated
one; therefore, a tight association with the nation-state materializes. Hence, this
distinctive diference should be well deined in order to develop more efective
policies that can further promote cultural industries. For these reasons, this paper
distinguishes the concepts of accumulated and accumulable cultures and argues

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that, whereas accumulated culture calls for some public initiatives, accumulable
culture can be more efectively promoted by private initiatives as seen in the case
of K-pop.

   he history of K-pop has two contrasting periods: one in which it was
struggling and far from enjoying global recognition and the other where it has
achieved great success and international popularity. he public sector had good
intentions to promote the music industry, but their approach was too limited and
rooted in past practices. hese public initiatives unfortunately created hindrances
in the development of the Korean music industry and K-pop, which resulted in
unexpected negative side efects. By contrast, when the public sector became less
involved in the industry, K-pop gained its international competitiveness through
private initiatives. his case clearly demonstrates the greater efectiveness of
private initiatives over public ones.

   he consumption side should also be carefully considered. here have been
private initiatives to disseminate K-pop through the Internet, which has not relied
greatly on copyright protection. As a result, K-pop has been readily available
online and international consumers have had more opportunities to encounter it.
More importantly, we need to keep in mind that K-pop has been consumed by
international fans because it is appealing—not because it is from Korea. When this
content is taken advantage of by the nation-state, K-pop can be negatively afected
as seen in the cases of the political disputes with China and Japan.

   he indings of this article have no intention to demonstrate that public
initiatives are obsolete or inefective, but that private initiatives are generally more
efective in promoting accumulable culture. Public initiatives should then be more
indirect in promoting the cultural industries—for instance, by improving the
country’s Internet infrastructure—something that has helped in the dissemination
of K-pop. If a country beneits from the popularity of accumulable culture in a way
that strengthens its national brand, the state may take advantage of it. However,
directly intervening in this type of culture will bring about counterproductive
efects. his paper highlights the importance of accumulable culture that can easily
be utilized and improved in the context of daily life. By expanding a great deal of
attention from accumulated culture to an accumulable one, more comprehensive
and efective cultural policies can be established.

   If the world truly wishes to enjoy cultural diversity and creativity, then there
should be a clear understanding of what culture is: Culture is not inherited, but
created.

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  Acknowledgement

   his work was supported by the Laboratory Program for Korean Studies
through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Studies
Promotion Service of the Academy of Korean Studies (AKS -2015-LAB -2250003).

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Notes

1. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 5th World Congress for
   Hallyu, in Seoul, Korea (20 Oct. 2017). his paper was further developed and
   updated. Some parts of this article have been examined by Jimmyn Parc (“Is Mona
   Lisa Smiling”; “Cultural Exception”).
2. here should be a clear distinction between the nation-state and the kingdom
   under Louis XIV . During his time, the audiences for ballet were mostly members
   of the royal family and other igures of nobility. hus, Louis XIV can be regarded
   as both a consumer and a patron. Furthermore, the Académie Royale de Danse
   can be seen as a system that is related to industry functions such as production,
   dissemination, and consumption (or exhibition).
3. As shown above in the case of wine and Halloween, this paper avoids the use
   of “traditional” culture since this is too much associated with the nation-state
   in general. In addition, in order to emphasize the importance of temporal
   accumulation and timing diference, the terms “accumulated” and “accumulable”
   are used.

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